A traditional method of authentication may involve prompting a user for a username and password. However, such a method of authentication can be prone to error and can require the user to recall hard-to-remember passwords. Another traditional method of authentication may involve receiving a unique property of the user, such as a fingerprint, to identify a user. However, such a method of authentication can be vulnerable to discovery of the user property. For example, an attacker who obtains a fingerprint of a user (or a facsimile thereof) can then falsely log in as the actual user. Yet another traditional method of authentication may involve presentation of a token (e.g., smart card) issued to the authorized user. However, such a method of authentication can be attacked by stealing the token.
Additionally, the traditional methods of authentication known in the art do not take into account different user priorities when granting access to system resources. In prior art methods, the priority status of the other users of the system are not taken into account when granting access to a particular user of the system.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system and method for authentication which takes into account unique user priorities and overcomes the deficiencies of the authentication systems and methods currently known in the art.